WOMAD

Tran Quang Hai & Bach Yen

From Vietnam

BACH YENAn ambassador for Vietnamese music, Bach Yen was born in South Vietnam and started her singing career in Saigon, singing in six different languages. She moved to Paris in 1961 and recorded several albums with Polydor. In 1965 she crossed the Atlantic, appearing with the likes of Ed Sullivan, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and recording with Jimmy Durante, Liberace and Frankie Avalon.On returning to Paris she met Tran Quang Hai, musician and ethnomusicologist. He reintroduced her to the traditional music of Vietnam, and together they have thrilled audiences on five continents and have seven albums to their name.TRAN QUANG HAIEminent ethnomusicologist, traditional musician and teacher and composer, Tran Quang Hai is one of the world's foremost authorities on Far Eastern music. Specialising in voice (including Mongolian throat singing), he also plays the bamboo juice harp, and many other Asian string instruments, notably the Dan Doc Huyen (16 string zither). He is also a virtuoso of the spoons, using his entire body as a percussion instrument, from feet to forehead. His sensitive reworkings of traditional Veitnamese music were the platform for the extraordinary success he and Bach Yen have created together over the last 20 years.